Military

DATE=OCTOBER 16, 2001

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-281871

TITLE=BUSH TALEBAN (L)

BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS

DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: President Bush will not consider a temporary halt to bombing Afghanistan amidt reports that moderate members of the ruling Taleban are trying to negotiate the hand-over of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. V-O-A's Scott Stearns reports, the White House says the military campaign will continue.

TEXT: Pakistani officials say moderates in the Taleban are offering to negotiate Osama bin Laden's extradition if the United States stops bombing the country for two or three-days.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says President Bush sees no opening in that offer and will continue the military and financial campaign to stop the prime suspect in last month's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

Mr. Fleischer says the President gave the Taleban plenty of time to turn over accused terrorist bin Laden. Now that the bombing has started, he says there is no more time for talking.

/// FLEISCHER ACT ///

The President is not pursuing such a course because he does not think it would be constructive. The President has given the Taleban government ample time to respond. The President made it perfectly plain about what actions the Taleban needed to take in order to avoid the fate they have chosen for themselves. They had plenty of time. They chose not to act.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Fleischer said the Bush Administration remains suspicious about foreign involvement in a string of letters contaminated with the deadly anthrax bacteria. One person has died and thousands have been tested since traces of the germ were discovered in letters in New York, Florida, Nevada, and Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fleischer says the Administration is still investigating whether the outbreaks are connected with the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

/// FLEISCHER ACT ///

The investigators will be on the lookout for the source of the anthrax that was put in the mail, and they will make any determinations they can about who was behind that, where it came from, whether there are any links among the various incidents and whether or not there is any foreign involvement. All of that is being actively looked at.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Fleischer says the White House is taking additional measures to check its mail following traces of anthrax in a letter delivered to Capitol Hill. He said stepped-up security everywhere around the White House includes measures to more vigorously screen all incoming mail at a separate location. (SIGNED)

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